Elizabeth Gower facts for kids

Elizabeth Gower (born 1952) is an Australian artist. She creates abstract art and lives in Melbourne. She is famous for her collages made from paper and other materials. She often uses things she finds, like urban trash.

Early Life and Learning

Elizabeth Gower was born in Adelaide, South Australia, in 1952. She studied art in Melbourne. She earned a Diploma of Art and Design in 1973. Later, she also got a teaching diploma in 1974. She continued her studies, earning a Master of Arts in 1995. She also completed a PhD in 2014.

Teaching and Influence

Elizabeth Gower has taught art at universities. These include the University of Melbourne and the Victorian College of the Arts. She is now an Honorary Fellow at the University of Melbourne. During her teaching career, Gower has organized art shows. She has also written essays and catalogs about art. These projects often bring together new and experienced artists. Her teaching and art have inspired many young artists in Melbourne.

How Elizabeth Gower Creates Art

Gower has been showing her art since 1975. Her work is displayed at Sutton Gallery in Melbourne and Milani Gallery in Brisbane. Her art style grew during the 1970s feminist movement. She was involved with groups like the Women's Art Movement.

She often uses collages and wall hangings. These are usually abstract designs. She uses everyday materials like newspaper and tissue paper. She also uses textiles and craft methods. One art curator, Lisa Sullivan, says Gower's work makes "women's work" into high art.

Gower also collects things like old papers and discarded printed items. This is part of her art and her way of looking at consumerism and waste. She uses graphic designs and repeats cut-out pictures. These might be spectacles, shoes, or fruit stickers. She often puts them on clear paper to create cool visual effects. Other artworks show many images of fish, crabs, fruit, vegetables, and insects.

In 2005, artist Kate Just wrote about changes in Gower's art. She noted that Gower started collecting different kinds of "things." Instead of physical objects, she began to focus on important events and conversations. For example, after September 11, Gower made lists of major conflicts. These were events that happened between September 11, 1901, and September 11, 2001. She showed these lists on long sheets of film.

The Geelong Art Gallery held a big show of Gower's art in 2018. It was called Cuttings - Elizabeth Gower. This show featured important artworks from the early 2000s onwards.

Awards and Art Stays

Gower has received many awards and residencies during her career. A residency is a time when an artist lives and works in a special place.

Some of her awards include:

• The Lynch Prize for Painting (1973)
• Georges Art Prize (1978)
• Mornington Drawing Prize (1995)
• A Fellowship grant from the Australia Council for the Arts (2002)
• An Australian Postgraduate Award (2006)

She has traveled a lot and completed many international residencies. These include:

• Green Street Studio, New York City (2008)
• Art Gallery of New South Wales Denise Hickey studio, Paris (2007)
• Barcelona Studio (2000)
• Paretaio Studio, Italy (1983)
• Point B Residency, New York City (2014)
• Institut für alles Mögliche studio in Berlin (2019)

Art Exhibitions

Solo Shows

Gower's first big solo exhibition was in 1975 in Melbourne. Since then, she has had many solo shows. These have been in galleries in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, and Canberra. Her art has also been shown in New York, London, Paris, and the United Arab Emirates.

Her Cuttings series of exhibitions featured discarded materials. These were found and reused as art during her residencies.

• Cuttings (from Barcelona) (2001)
• Cuttings (from St.Kilda) (2004)
• Cuttings (from Paris) (2008)
• Cuttings (from New York) (2010)

The Cuttings series ended with a big show in 2018. This was Cuttings - Elizabeth Gower at the Geelong Art Gallery.

Other important exhibitions of her work include:

• Chance or Design (1995–96)
• Beyond the Everyday (2002–03)
• Conversations 1955 - 2005 (2005)
• Sites 1980 - 2005 (2005)
• Line of Thought 1975-2002 (2002)
• Portrait of the Artist as a Young Woman 1974 - 2002 (2002)

Group Shows

Since the 1970s, Gower has often shown her art in group exhibitions. These shows often focus on feminist, abstract, or collage art.

Some notable group exhibitions include:

• Treasures of a Decade, 1968-1978 at the National Gallery of Victoria (1978)
• Biennale of Sydney at the Art Gallery of New South Wales (1979)
• Fieldwork Australian Art 1968-2002 at the Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia (2002)
• Imaging the apple (2004–5, 2010)
• Cut with a knife (2012–13)
• Howard Arkley (and friends) at the TarraWarra Museum of Art (2015)
• Melbourne Now at the National Gallery of Victoria (2013)
• Abstraction: celebrating Australian women abstract artists (2017)
• Unfinished Business: perspectives on feminism and art at the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art (2018)
• In 2024, her early abstract work was shown in Radical: Australian Abstract Art of the 70s and 80s. This was at the Warrnambool Art Gallery.

Public Artworks

Gower has also created art for public spaces. These include banners, light boxes, and murals. One example is the Lost and Found floor mural. It is in the arena foyer at Sydney Olympic Park. This mural shows drawings of athletes and sports themes.

Personal Life

Elizabeth Gower was married to Howard Arkley (1973-1980?). Later, she married John R Neeson (1984- ). Gower and Neeson work together as artists and curators. They also create their own individual artworks.